Israel-Gaza updates: Gaza sees deadliest day since conflict began
At least 700 people died in Gaza on Tuesday, OCHA said.
Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
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What we know about the conflict
The latest outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has passed the four-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,228 people have been killed and 71,377 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 395 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The ongoing war began after Hamas-led militants launched an unprecedented incursion into southern Israel from neighboring Gaza via land, sea and air. Scores of people were killed while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. The Israeli military subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes followed by a ground invasion of Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory where more than 2 million Palestinians have lived under a blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas came to power in 2007. Gaza, unlike Israel, has no air raid sirens or bomb shelters.
Gaza shelters 4 times over their capacities: UNRWA
Shelters in Gaza are four times over their capacities, forcing many people to sleep in the streets, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Nearly 600,000 displaced Gaza residents are sheltering at 150 UNRWA facilities, the agency said.
Tuesday marks deadliest day in Gaza since conflict began
Tuesday marked the deadliest day in Gaza since the Hamas-Israel conflict began on Oct. 7, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
At least 700 people died on Tuesday, OCHA said.
Over 6,500 people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
Gaza to run out of fuel Wednesday night: UNRWA
Gaza is set to run out of fuel Wednesday night, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
"If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip" Wednesday night, UNRWA said.
UN secretary-general responds to Israeli ambassador's criticism
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is responding to the Israeli ambassador's call for him to resign, saying it's false to accuse him of "justifying" Hamas' attacks.
At the U.N. Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Guterres asserted that "the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum," sparking immediate backlash from Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan.
"The Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner," Erdan said. "His statement that, 'The attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,' expressed an understanding for terrorism and murder."
"It’s truly sad that the head of an organization that arose after the Holocaust holds such horrible views," Erdan said.
Guterres said at the U.N. Wednesday, "I am shocked by the misinterpretations by some of my statement yesterday in the Security Council, as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false. It was the opposite. In the beginning of my intervention yesterday, I clearly stated -- and I quote: 'I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented 7 October acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, or the launching of rockets against civilian targets.'"
"Indeed, I spoke of the grievances of the Palestinian people," Guterres continued. "And in doing so, I also clearly stated, and I quote: 'But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas.'"
Israeli official: 'Definitions of defeating Hamas' must be more 'realistic'
Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, the former head of the Israel National Security Council, told ABC News the "definitions of defeating Hamas … have to be a little more measurable and realistic."
Eiland, who has been working inside Israel’s military headquarters, said there’s no way to completely destroy Hamas, but he said what Israel can do "is destroy the military capabilities and other governmental functions of Hamas."
"But even to achieve this limited goal we will have to maintain the military effort," he said.
Eiland said Israel cannot allow Hamas "the ability now or in the future to rebuild their rocket arsenal."
-ABC News' Matt Gutman